A Proposed Concept of a System for the Removal of Debris Produced During Laser Micromachining
C. F. Dowding and and J. Lawrence
This paper describes an attempt to solve the issue of debris produced in large area laser micromachining for the rapid, accurate production of micron scale arrayed geometric features. Mechanical removal means are shown to be unsuitable, while gas jetting and vacuum extraction seem to be ineffective when compared to the large adhesion forces at work. Instead, vibration based methods are touted alongside the use of immersion. This system will be developed using an analytical method: computational fluid dynamics (CFD), to clarify ideas and refine the design though an iterative process. The final design appears to be capable of producing a flow sufficient to provide a clean “water window” of 25 mm × 2 mm in size at a rate of 200 Hz.
Keywords: Laser micromachining, debris removal, design concept, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), liquid immersion